Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Even though I always have a year, one month and a day to prepare, I seem to always wait until the last minute to get things together for my annual party. This year I had a general idea of what I wanted to do but didn't finalize anything until the morning of the party. Despite my general lack of organization, I think it turned out well.

I'm starting to have to be a little more selective in my invites because there are just so many kids now! This year I limited myself to 12 families. If everyone showed up that would be between 50-60 people. We ended up with around 30.

Another thing I have to consider is the wide range of ages involved. With the party falling on the same date as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies I decided to go with that theme.

We had 8 events for everyone to participate in and I divided the gym into stations. That way, you could go at your own pace and the older kids could do it on their own.

This was one of the families playing Crazy 8's. Other games included: an Olympic Quiz, make your own flag, long jump, javelin, triathlon, farkle, and Dance Dance Revolution.

At each station I had a sign listing the event and the instructions. There was also a stamp and stamp pad so you stamp your paper that you had completed that event. When you completed your paper, you got a prize.

Three special people were awarded medals. Medals were awarded to: the first kid to finish, the javelin winner, and the long jump winner.

We had the medal ceremony (complete with Olympic music) after our parade of nations. All the kids (and some adults) got the flags they made and paraded across the stage while the rest of us cheered.

Speedy Jared. Notice one of the flags in the background? Some people were very creative.

Suzanne threw the javelin (a little football rocket) the farthest. She pretty much wiped out the competition.

Ryan (Suzanne's husband) was the long jump champion. There was some scandal involved because one person actually jumped a little farther but it took him 3 tries. That disqualified him so Ryan was the clear winner!

09-09-09 will be here before I know it! Any ideas for a theme? I've been kicking around the idea of making it an adults only gathering and making everyone dress up "to the nines". We could have fancy schmancy food and dancing. The bad news is that it is on a Wednesday night and that will be the youth activity night that year. I'm sure Carl will still be involved with that so we'd have to have the party start pretty late. On a school night. Hmm. Good thing I have some time to think about this.